


Let Me Care

by celticmess



Series: asks from tumblr [5]
Category: natewantstobattle
Genre: Childhood Trauma, DMC!verse, Flashbacks, Nate doesn't know how to let people care, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25403374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celticmess/pseuds/celticmess
Summary: 22. "Oh my goodness I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" Jonathan and Nate? Make it angsty 😈 - rubbersoles19from my tumblr @celticmess
Series: asks from tumblr [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1839868
Kudos: 2





	Let Me Care

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Patrick and Smith, Part 1](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22903402) by [reverseblackholeofwords](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reverseblackholeofwords/pseuds/reverseblackholeofwords), [RubberSoles19](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubberSoles19/pseuds/RubberSoles19). 



It was a pretty chill day, Ro had kept the Roadhouse closed to give everyone some time to relax. Steph and Matt had gone into town to spend some quality time together, leaving Ro, Jonathan and Nate at the Roadhouse together. Ro refused to let Nate have a day of doing nothing, still raving about him earning his keep, so she gave him the job of repainting the outside window frames. After giving him the task, he turned to Jonathan and made a point of reminding him that he didn’t have to help Nate if he didn’t want to, but Jonathan, being the sweetie he is, chose to anyway. Obviously, he made a point out of deciding whether he would help or not just to mess with Nate, but that didn’t take too long. So there the two boys were, half an hour later, with paint buckets, screwdrivers and scrapers.

“Do you have any idea what to do?” Jonathan asked, and Nate shrugged.

“Kinda? I’ll figure it out.” Nate said, brushing off any concern as he took the scraper and climbed the ladder to the slightly elevated first floor, starting to scrape off the loose and peeling paint that had been battered by years of unforgiving sunlight. Jonathan stood behind him, holding the ladder, and Nate could feel the nervous energy radiating off him. Not that he blamed him, why Ro chose him and Jonathan to handle glass windows was beyond him. At least it wasn’t his fault if anything broke.

“It’s not fair, Matt and Steph get to go on a nice date together and we get left here and used for hard labour.” Nate huffed.

“Is that your way of asking me to take you on a date?” Jonathan asked with amusement in his voice.

“Shut up, Shady. You know what I meant.” Nate said, casually poking at him with his foot.

“I know. But you did crash-”

“Crash her car, yeah, I know, she doesn’t stop reminding me.” Nate rolled his eyes as he finished scraping the loose paint off the window frame and climbed back down the ladder.

“I’ll do the masking tape if you open the paint can.” Jonathan suggested, and Nate nodded. So Jonathan climbed the ladder to put the masking tape on the window while Nate wrestled with the paint can. While Jonathan took no time neatly putting the masking tape on the borders of the window, Nate couldn’t for the life of him open the damn paint can. Eventually, Jonathan climbed back down the ladder and dropped the masking tape on the ground, standing next to Nate and watching as he struggled.

“Need some help there, Sharp?” he asked, and Nate sat back with a huff.

“It’s all good, Indovino. If I can beat a soul sucking shtriga, I can beat a paint can.” he said. Jonathan just rolled his eyes and gently shoved Nate out of the way, trying his hand at opening the can. He didn’t have time to warn Nate before the lid popped open and his arm flung back, his elbow connecting with something solid. The solid cheekbone of Nate, who had been right behind him.

"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" Jonathan exclaimed, but it was like Nate couldn’t hear him. His head was snapped to the side, his cheek already going red from where the blow had connected, and he was staring off distantly like he wasn’t quite there.

Which he wasn’t, naturally. Jonathan’s elbow connected with his cheek and suddenly he was nine years old, cowering from his dad. He had mixed up poltergeists and ghouls one too many times that day, and John had lost his patience.

“These are mistakes that will get you killed, Nathan.” he scolded, his face darkened with anger.

“Yes, sir.” Nate replied meekly, trying to shrink in on himself. Then he was back outside the Roadhouse with Jonathan, who was calmly giving him instructions as his breath came in short, quick gasps.

“Nate. You need to tell me five things you can see.” he instructed, but Nate could barely hear him.

“What?” he asked, trying to focus on Jonathan’s voice.

“Five things you can see.” he repeated, and Nate nodded, looking around even though he felt like none of this was real.

“Um… The sky, the Roadhouse..” he looked at Jonathan “You, the paint can and…” he continued looking before spotting the ladder. “Ladder.”

“Good, now four things you can touch.” Jonathan instructed, his voice calm if not a bit worried as Nate recounted four things he could feel, starting with the grass beneath him. Continuing in his calm but concerned manner, Jonathan walked Nate through the rest of the exercise, finding three things Nate could hear, two he could smell and finally one he could taste. Although Nate was still out of breath by the end of it, he was much calmer and the main crisis had passed. For a few seconds, there was silence between them before Jonathan started rambling.

“I’m so sorry Nate, I didn’t know you were right behind me!” he apologised, but Nate plastered on his trademark grin and waved him off.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” he said, standing up and brushing himself off.

“Nate-” Jonathan began, but Nate was already walking away.

“It’s fine Shady! I’m uh… I’m gonna go out for a drive, okay?” and with that, Nathan Smith hopped in the firebird and sped away from the roadhouse, leaving Jonathan staring after him, feeling unbelievably guilty.


End file.
